Friday, March 25, 2011

2011 Ohio Botanical Symposium

Another Ohio Botanical Symposium is, as we say in true Iron Chef style, "ovah".  Today's event was again super.  If you weren't able to attend, we were treated to a wide variety of topics on all things botanical, ranging from climate change to clovers and back again to reconstructing the pre-settlement vegetation of Clark County in west-central Ohio.

And congratulations to my botanical sensei Rick Gardner for putting together his eighth conference in a row.  One big announcement was made today- in case you missed it.  The symposium is moving to an every-other-year format.  I know Rick is tired and exhausted from putting this conference together year after year.  It gets increasingly difficult to find a new slate of speakers.  But Rick, please reconsider.  We all love the botanical symposium in its current format and I'd like to see it happen every year.

Thanks Rick for a wonderful event!

Tom

6 comments:

  1. Couldn't agree more, Tom! Today was amazing and I enjoyed every second of it! I wish to send the same message to Rick as well. I understand how much work, time and effort he has to sacrifice to put this all together but I'd hate to think the next time this will happen is 2013. I was already looking forward to 2012 before it was over!

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  2. Definitely wish I could've made it to this! Hope it was a good one!

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  3. I agree with the above. This was the best OBS I've attended, and Rick did a tremendous job in organizing the event. What about slightly changing the format so that every other year was in the same format as this year's event, but in the opposite years the conference consisted only of field trips to Ohio natural areas? Wouldn't need to worry about running out of speakers that way.

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  4. I haven't attended one of these symposia, but maybe if Rick got more help...? I help put together an annual conference with about 10 other people, and even with 10 people we're all exhausted when the conferences are over. Give Rick a hand, folks!

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  5. Great conference again this year! I would love to see them continue every year.

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  6. Part of the reason for the OBS success is that it is an annual event that keeps growing by word of mouth each subsequent year. Once you skip a year, it goes off the proverbial radar, and registration/support will suffer. Please keep it a yearly event!

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